PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 2(1): 21-28 (1994) ISSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Pertanian Malaysia Press

The Relationship between Quality of Home Environment andMental Scores of Children attending the UPM Laboratory Preschool*

ROHANI ABDULlAH, SITI NOR YAACOB,ROZUMAH BAHARUDIN

Department of Family Development Studies,Universiti Pertanian Malaysia,

43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darnl Ehsan, Malaysia.

Keywords: preschool children, mental performance, home environment, family background

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan perkaitan di antara kualiti persekitaran rumah yang disediakan oleh ibubapa untuk anak-anak mereka dan prestasi mental anak-anak. Kajian ditumpukan kepada 64 orang kanak-kanakberumur eli an tara 5 hingga 6 tahun, yang menghadiri Makmal Prasekolah Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. Hasilkajian menunjukkan secara keseluruhannya kanak-kanak yang terlibat di dalam kajian ini mempunyai keluargayang menyediakan persekitaran rumah yang menggalakkan. Selaras dengan kajian-kajian yang lalu, kualitipersekitaran rumah responden mempunyai perkaitan dengan latarbelakang keluarga. Kedua-dua pendidikandan pendapatan ibu bapa mempunyai perkaitan dengan kualiti persekitaran rumah. Kualiti persekitaran rumahjuga elidapati mempunyai perkaitan yang signifikan dengan prestasi mental kanak-kanak. Kanak-kanak daripadapersekitaran rumah yang meransang kognitif memperolehi skor yang lebih tinggi di dalam semua sub-skalaWeschler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence daripada kanak-kanak lain dalam kajian.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the quality of home environment thatparents provide for their children and the children's mental performance. The study focused on 64 children,aged 5 to 6 years, from the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia Laboratory Preschool. Results of the study show that,generally, most of the children came from a relatively supportive home environment. Consistent with past re­search, the quality of home environment correlated with family background. Both parents' education and in­come correlated with the quality of the home environment. The quality of the home environment correlatedsignificantly with the children's mental performance. Children from a cognitively stimulating home environ­ment achieved higher scores on all the subscales of the Weschler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence.

INTRODUCTION

Of the various environmental factors that influ­ence development during early childhood, thefamily and home environment represents one ofthe most significant factors in a young child's life.Previous studies have provided evidence that asecure child who has had a harmonious and posi­tive relationship with his parents tends to becomea competent, responsible and productive adult(Belsky et al. 1984; Maccoby and Martin, 1983).Findings from recent studies also support the as­sociation between home environment and achild's level of development during early child­hood (Beckwith and Cohen, 1988; Bradley and

Caldwell, 1989; Bradley and Casey, 1984; Bradleyet al., 1989; Bullock and Pennington, 1988; Ninioand Rinott, 1988; Rozumah and Luster, 1992).These studies revealed that a home with appro­priate tools for stimulation and a warm, facilitativerelationship between parents and children madeup the best combination that would encourageoptimal learning in children.

Bee (1985) in her review of past studies sum­marized that the home environment of childrenwho achieved higher IQ scores had appropriateplay materials and parents who were democratic,emotionally and verbally responsive and had real­istic goals for their children. A study by Rohani

• An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 'Seminar Toward Enhancing the Quality ofLife', Universiti PertanianMalaysia, Serdang, Selangor, 18th December 1989.

Rohani Abdullah, Siti NorYaacob and Rozumah Baharudin

et al. (1989) reported similar findings. The men­tal abilities of the children were associated withthe availability of appropriate play materials, vari­ety ofstimulation, organization of the physical en­vironment and availability of language and aca­demic stimulation within the home environment.Bradley et al. (1989) reported a collaborative studywhich also provided similar evidence. The studyfound that measures of specific aspects of thechild's home environment such as parentalresponsitivity and availability of stimulating playmaterials were more strongly related to children'scognitive development than global measures ofenvironmental quality such as family socio-eco­nomic status. The importance of certain aspectsof the home environment on children's achieve­ment was also investigated by Rozumah (1992).The study found that children who did well onachievement tests had mothers who providedmore cognitively stimulating home environments.Children whose parents had a higher level of edu­cation and a higher family income were also foundto perform better on the tests.

The effect of the early home environment isnot transient. Longitudinal studies have indicatedthat children who had experienced a stimulatinghome environment during their childhood yearstended to thrive better at schools (Bradley andCaldwell, 1984a; Bradley et al., 1988a; Bradley etal., 1988b). The early home environment is there­fore a valuable indicator of the learning environ­ment available to the child early in life and thepotential performance of the child when he en­ters formal schooling.

The present study was designed to determinethe relationship between the quality of homeenvironment and the children's level of mentaltests performance with three specific objectivesin mind: 1) To determine the quality of the homeenvironment available to the preschool child; 2)To determine the relationship between familybackground and the quality of the children'shome environment; and 3) To determine the re­lationship between the quality of the home envi­ronment and the children's mental performance.

METHODOLOGY

Sample

Subjects for the study were 64 children aged 5 to6 years from the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia

Laboratory Preschool. Most (90%) of the chil­dren were Malays, and the rest were Indians andChinese. Fifty-two percent were males, and 48%were females.

Instrument

a. Home Inventory

The quality of the children's home environ­ment was assessed using the Preschool Version ofthe HOME (Home Observation for Measurementof the Environment) Inventory by a trained re­search assistant. The HOME has been shown tobe a highly reliable and valid measure, and astrong predictor of child outcomes (Bradley andCaldwell, 1984a; Gottfried, 1984; Suriani, 1988).Suriani found an alpha coefficient of .89 for theHOME in her study on Malaysian children. Thepreschool HOME Inventory is an observation/in­terview technique that assesses the quality of physi­cal, cognitive, social and emotional stimulationavailable to the child within the home environ­ment.

The Preschool Version of the HOME Inven­tory (henceforth HOME) is composed of eightsubscales. These subscales include: 1) toys, gamesand reading materials; 2) language stimulation;3) physical environment; 4) pride, affection andwarmth; 5) stimulation of academic behavior, 6)modeling and encouragement of social maturity;7) variety of experience; and 8) acceptance. Eachitem of the subscales is scored by giving 1 pointfor the presence of stimulation or 0 for the ab­sence ofstimulation for the child within the horne.The total HOME is determined by adding scoresofthe 8 subscales ofHOME. High scores indicatehigh quality home environment. Caldwell andBradley (1984) reported an internal consistencyof .93 for HOME. HOME was translated intoBahasa Melayu (the national Malaysian Language)and retranslated into English. A ninety-five per­cent agreement was calculated between the origi­nal and the retranslated versions.

b. Weschler Preschool and Primary Scales ofIntelligence (WPPS1).

The WPPSI, designed to assess the intellec­tual abilities ofpreschool children, are divided into10 major components: 1) information; 2) voca­bulary; 3) arithmetic; 4) similarities; 5) compre­hension; 6) animal house; 7) picture completion;

22 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 2 No.1 1994

The Relationship between Quality of Home Environment and Mental Scores of Preschool Children

TABLE 3Percentage distribution offamily size

In terms of family size, a majority of therespondents came from a family of four to sixmembers (Table 3). This is a relatively averagefamily size, that is, a family of two to four chil­dren. The largest family size among the respond­ents was 10 persons.

TABLE 1Percentage distribution of parents' educational

background

Level of education Father MotherN % N %

Primary education 4 6.0 6 9.4Lower Certificate of 6 10.8 5 7.8Education/SRPMalaysian Certificate 16 24.1 15 23.4of Education/SPMHigher School 4 4.8 15 23.1Certificate/STPMDiploma 2 3.1 4 6.3Degree 3 4.7 9 14.0Masters 14 21.8 10 15.6Ph.D 5 7.8 5 7.8Not available 10 15.6 8 12.5

64 100.0 64 100.0

TABLE 2Percentage distribution of parent's

monthly income

Father MotherIncome (RM) N % N %

Less than RM500 10 15.6 24 37.4500 - 999 22 34.4 16 25.01000 -1499 10 15.6 5 7.81500 - 1999 4 6.3 5 7.82000 - 2499 7 10.9 8 12.52500 - 2999 3 4.7 1 1.6Above 3000 5 7.8 4 6.~~

Not available 3 4.7 1 LEiTOTAL 64 100.0 64 100.0

8) mazes; 9) geometric design; and 10) block de­sign. Each component of the WPPSI is scoredaccording to specific criterion as described in themanual byWeschsler (1963). Weschsler found astrong correlation between the WPPSI and theStanford-Binet Intelligence Scale indicating thatthe WPPSI is a reliable measure of children's men­tal performance. The first five components (1-5)are calculated to make up the Verbal IQ while thesecond group of five components (6-10) make upthe Performance IQ. The scores of all ten com­ponents are combined to calculate the Full IQ.The WPPSI was administered in Bahasa Melayu.

Procedure

The WPPSI test was individually administered tothe children in their preschool setting. A homevisit was then arranged. The parents were allowedto choose the time at their own convenience. Dur­ing the home visit, the research assistant conversedwith the parents on topics related to the familybackground, the target child's abilities and howparents usually spend their time with the targetchild. At the same time the research assistantwould mark her checklist on the HOME Inven­tory, questioning the parents on the items whichshe could not observe herself. The visit lasted,on an average, about an hour. To determine therelationships between the independent and de­pendent variables the Pearson Correlation analy­sis was used.

RESULTS

Family Background

The education level of the respondents' parentsranged from primary education to doctoral de­grees in specific fields. Table 1 indicates that 22%of the children's fathers had masters degrees and24% had the Malaysian Certificate of Education.Twenty-three percent of the mothers had theMalaysian Certificate of Education. In addition,81 % of the mothers involved in the study wereemployed outside the home.

The parents' monthly income ranged frombelow RM500 to above RM3000 (Table 2). Most(34%) of the fathers earned between RM500 toRM999 while most of the mothers (37%) earnedless than RM500 per month. Almost one quar­ter of the fathers earned more than RM2000.

Family size N

Less than 4 14-6 56Above 7 7

TOTAL 64

%

1.687.510.9

100.0

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 2 No.1 1994 23

Rohani Abdullah, Siti NorYaacob and Rozumah Baharudin

HOME and Mental Scores

Table 4 presents the results of the assessment ofthe quality of the children's home environment.In comparison to Caldwell and Bradley's (1984)report on the preschool version of the HOMEInventory, the respondents scored relatively highon three subscales of the HOME: verbal stimula­tion, academic stimulation and modeling of so­cial maturity. The mean for the rest of thesubscales (toys, game and materials; physical en­vironment; warmth and affection; and accept­ance) was about the same. However, the respond­ents scored much lower in the variety of experi­ence subscale when compared to the mean re­ported by Caldwell and Bradley (1984).

TABLE 5Mean scores and standard deviations of

subscales ofWPPSI

Subscales Mean SD

Information 10.50 2.44Vocabulary 9.42 1.86Arithmetic 11.09 2.47Similarities 12.95 2.70Cornprehension 9.05 2.25Animal house 10.64 2.65Picture completion 12.92 2.31Mazes 12.58 2.16Geometric design 12.75 2.63Block design 14.05 1.78

TABLE 6Percentage distribution of WPPSI lQ scores

HOME

TABLE 4Mean scores and standard deviations

for pre-school home inventory

Mean SD

IQ scores Verbal Performance Overall% % %

The results of the children's scores on theWPSSI test are shown in Table 5. As noted earlier,the WPPSI was used to assess the preschool chil­dren's intellectual abilities. The WPPSI resultsshowed that the respondents had lower means forfive of the subscales than those reported byWeschler (1967). With reference to Table 5, therespondents in this study had lower means forinformation, vocabulary, comprehension, animalhouse and picture completion. Mean scores forarithmetic, similarities, mazes, geometric designand block design did not differ much from thosereported by Weschler (1967).

The WPPSI test generated three scores,namely, Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and Full IQ.A majority of the respondents (72%), obtainedabove average scores (110-129) on PerformanceIQand a large proportion (48%) obtained aboveaverage scores on Full IQ (Table 6).

Toys, games and readingVerbal stimulationPhysical environmentWarmth and affectionAcademic stimulationModelingVariety of experiencesAcceptance

Total HOME (P)

6.027.605.976.124.663.926.483.18

43.95

0.600.550.230.800.670.861.120.59

3.69

Below 90 (learning 6.3 4.7 3.1disability)

90 - 109 (average) 68.7 10.9 45.3110 - 129 (above 25.0 71.9 48.4

average)Above 130 (superior) 0.0 12.5 3.1

Relationship between HOME and FamilyBackground

The results of the study indicated that the totalHOME and one subscale of the HOME ( toys,games, and materials) were significantly relatedto four of the family variables: father's education,mother's education, father's income and moth­er's income. Table 7 shows that toys, games andreading materials were significantly related to allthe fourvariabes, i.e. father's education (r =.75, p< .01), mother's education (r = .64, P < .01), fa­ther's income (r = .64, P < .01), mother's income(r = .50, P < .01). The total HOME was relatedsignificantly to all the four family variables: Fa­ther's education (r= .68, p < .01), mother's educa­tion (r = .59, P < .01), father's income (r = .57, P <.01) and mother's income (r = .46, P < .01). Vari­ety of experience was significantly related to fa­ther's education (r = .40, P < .01) and acceptancewas significantly related to mother's income (r =.33, P < .01). Other subscales of the HOME werealso related to the family background variables;

24 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 2 No.1 1994

The Relationship between Quality of Home Environment and Mental Scores of Preschool Children

TABLE 7Correlations between selected family background and preschool HOME

family background

Father's Mother's Father's Mother'sHOME education education income mcome

Toys, games andmaterials .75* .64* .64* 50*Verbalstimulation .14 .11 -.03 -.20Physicalenvironment .09 .09 .07 .12Warmth andaffection .12 .20 .21 .28Academicstimulation .16 .27 .17 .16Modeling .28 .24 .26 .~',Q

Variety ofexperiences .40* .25 .32 .11Acceptance .27 .29 .15 .33*Total HOME (P) .68* .59* .57* .46*

* p < .01

however, the relationships were not significant atthe .05 level.

Relationship between Mental Scores and Family

Background

Correlational analyses computed between thechildren's WPPSI scores and family backgroundproduced several significant findings. Thesubscales of WPPSI tended to correlate signifi­cantly with mother's education, father's incomeand mother's income (Table 8). Mother's educa­tion correlated significantly with vocabulary (r =.35, P < .01) and verbal (r =.33, p < .01). Moth­er's income was found to correlate significantlywith information (r =.37, p < .01), vocabulary(r=.47, p < .01), animal house (r =.35, p < .01)and Verbal IQ (r =.40, p < .01). Father's incomecorrelated significantly with information (r = .34,P < .01), block design (r = .36, P < .01), and Ver­bal IQ (r = .38, P < .01). These findings suggestthat the more educated the parents are, the morelikely they will structure their home environmentin ways that encourage children's intellectual de­velopment. In addition, parents with higher in­come may be more able financially to provideeducational resources that promote positive de­velopment in children.

TABLE 8Correlation between selected family background

factors and selected subscales of WPPSI

family background

Mother's Father's Mother'sWPPSI education Income income

Information .28 .34* .37*Vocabulary .35* .36* .47*Animal house .16 .22 .35Block design .31 .36* .28VerbalIQ .33* .38* .40*

* p < .01

Relationship between HOME and Children'sMental Performance

Correlational analyses to determine the relation­ships between the quality of the children's homeenvironment and their performance on theWPPSI showed that three HOME subscales cor­related significantly with WPPSI subscales. Table9 shows that toys, games and materials correlatedsignificantly with information (r =.45, p < .01),similarities (r =.36, p < .01), block design (r =.33,p < .01), Verbal IQ (r =.42, p < .01) and Full IQ (r=.43, p < .01). Warmth and affection correlated

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 2 No.1 1994 25

Rohani Abdullah, Siti Nor Yaacob and Rozumah Baharudin

TABLE 9Correlations between selected subscales of WPPSI and Preschool HOME

HOME

toys, games warmth academic TotalWPPSI and materials and affection stimulation HOME

Information .45* .04 .21 .32Vocabulary .20 .47* .22 .28Similarities .36* .18 .04 .29Comprehension .31 .36* .34* .35*Picture completion .15 .34* -.01 .08Block design .33* .01 .II .25VerbalIQ .42* .39* .23 .38*Full IQ .43* .34* .17 .30

*p <.01

significantly with vocabulary (r =.47, p < .01), com­prehension (r =.36, p < .01), picture completion (r=.34, p < .01), Verbal IQ (r =.39, p < .01) and FullIQ (r =.34, p < .01). Significant correlations werefound between stimulation ofacademic behaviourand comprehension (r=.34, p < .01), while the TotalHOME correlated significantly with comprehen­sion (r =.35, p < .01) and Verbal IQ (r =.38, p <.01) .

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study show that on the whole,the respondents do well on both measures of theHOME inventory and the WPPSI mental tests.These results indicate that the children in thisstudy are from families that provide a cognitivelystimulating home environment. Consistent withthe findings from other studies (Gottfried, 1984;Rozumah, 1992), children who experience a quali­tatively supportive home environment tend to per­form well on the WPSSI scales.

As was seen earlier, the respondents in thisstudy came from a varied family background. Cer­tain aspects of the HOME Inventory and mentaltest tended to associate significantly with the chil­dren's family background. Toys, games and read­ing materials were related to both parent's educa­tion and parents' income. The same family vari­ables also related closely to the total home envi­ronment of a preschool child. Items observed insubscale of toys, games and reading materials in­cluded toys or games that taught colours, size,shape and numbers, puzzle, music, toys that per-

mitted free experience and creativity, toys thatnecessitated refined movements, children'sbooks and family reading materials. The resultssuggest that parents with a higher education anda higher income have a greater awareness of theimportance ofstimulating materials; and havingthe means to purchase these materials, they weremore likely to invest in these items.

The results of this study indicated thatvocabulary and Verbal IQ ofWPPSI were associ­ated with mother's education. This results sup­ported findings ofAppleton et al. (1975), Clarke­Stewart and Friedman (1977) and Yarrow et al.(1975) which showed that better educatedmothers were more likely to provide verbalstimulation and were more responsive to chil­dren's verbal expressions than less educated par­ents. Their children, therefore, had more op­portunities to develop verbal skills.

Verbal and Full IQ ofWPPSI correlated withtoys, games and reading materials, warmth andacceptance and the total HOME environmentof the preschoolers. Our findings support re­sults reported by Yarrow et al. (1975) which indi­cated that the variety of objects available to thechildren at home were closely associated withtheir scores on intelligence tests. Other studieshave also suggested that young children's men­tal abilities are stimulated when they play with avariety of interesting things; when they are al­lowed to explore their surroundings; and whenparents participate in their children's games andactivities (Bradley et al.1977; Bradley and

26 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 2 No.1 1994

The Relationship between Quality of Home Environment and Mental Scores of Preschool Children

Caldwell, 1984b; Price et al. 1981). Toys and play

objects are only a part of the stimulation provided

by parents. These objects become more mean­

ingful and have a greater potential to facilitate

optimal learning if parents participate in the

games; for example, by showing the child how to

build a skyscaper out of the blocks, how to com­

plete puzzles or to build a tractor out of the lasy

parts.Any home environment could be rich with

"toys" that children can use to explore, experiment

and learn, even ifparents cannot buy specific toys

for their children. For example, three to six year

olds may enjoy helping parents sweep the floor,

fold clothes, or even play with pots and pans in

the kitchen. Parents can teach their children col­

ours, shapes, sizes, numbers and words by using

practically anything and everything that is avail­

able within the home environment.

It can be concluded that family background,

the quality of the home environment that the par­

ents provide for their children, and the children's

mental performance are highly related to one

another. Future studies could be directed to fur­

ther exploration of the relationships between the

HOME and WPPSI subscales, specifically those

that were found to be non-significan t in this study.

Given that the family is a major setting for chil­

dren's development, future researchers could

also examine the influence of other family back­

ground variables such as number of children in

the family, child birth order, and family structure

on the quality of the home environment and chil­

dren's mental performance.

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